This charcoal gray pipe is higher quality than the white plumbing pipe and is mainly for industrial applications. I also order a premium gray PVC water pipe from U S Plastics in Lima, Ohio.
However, if you like the gray color and don’t mind a softer sounding flute, the flutes made from conduit are not bad. This gray pipe is less dense than the white plumbing pipe, and flutes made from the gray electrical conduit do not produce as loud a tone as the denser white plumbing pipe. It is also possible to make flutes from the gray PVC pipe that is used for electrical conduit. The price of a ten foot section of ¾” schedule 40 pipe should be under $2.00. Each 10-foot section of pipe will make four flutes. I ask the clerk to courtesy-cut the 10- foot sections into two 5-foot pieces, so that I can carry them in my car. The pipe usually comes in either 5-foot or 10-foot sections, with the 10-foot sections being the best buy. The white pipe is found in the plumbing section of the store. Materials and tools needed: Most PVC flutes in low D are constructed from ¾” schedule 40 PVC pipe, which is readily available in any hardware or home improvement store. Please let me know if there is something that is not clear to you, and I will try to make it more clear in my writing. I’m sure that there is something else that I will need to revise in the future. If you decide that you want to try using the smaller hole for R3, the hole layout can easily be determined by using the flutomat online calculator that I link below. This is a trade-off that I decided to make several years ago. This brings the finger holes for the right middle finger (R2) and the right ring finger (R3) closer together and makes the stretch easier for many people, although the tone at that hole may not be as strong as with the larger 5/16″ hole suggested below. Instead of the 5/16″ hole that I suggest below, I am now using a 1/4″ hole. Since writing these instructions, I have started to use a smaller hole for the hole closest to the end of the flute (for the R3 finger). At this point you are ready to layout and drill the finger holes using the distance measurements given below. You keep repeating this process, little by little, until your fundamental tone is exactly D on the tuner. If you are flat of D, that means that you need to remove some more material from the end of the flute. Using an electronic tuner or other known standard for pitch, see what the pitch reading is for the fundamental tone. This will give you some freedom in choosing a larger embouchure if you choose to do that (oval, for example) and to match your personal embouchure to the flute that you are making. However, with a longer piece of pipe, say 590 mm rather than the 570 mm that I mention below, you can increase the sounding length (say 545 mm instead of of 525 mm) so that the pitch of the fundamental tone of the flute (before drilling the finger holes) is most likely going to be flat, if you are blowing the flute anywhere close to the way that I do. Below I give 525 mm as the sounding length, the distance from the center of the embouchure hole to the end of the flute, for the small 3/8″ round embouchure hole. If you plan to use a Fajardo wedge in your flute, you will also want to insert that at this time before drilling the finger holes. Secondly, rather than drilling the embouchure hole and the finger holes at the same time, as I suggest below, another way of going about this is to drill and finish the embouchure hole and insert the tuning cork before you drill the finger holes. Like the gray pvc pipe that I buy from out-of-state, the black pipe can be purchased in small quantities (20 feet) and shipped by UPS in 5 foot sections. This pipe is not as hard as the white pipe, but it makes nice looking and good sounding flutes. I buy it from Savko Plastic Pipe in Columbus, OH. First, I have found a source of black pvc pipe that is not rated but has the same dimensions as the white schedule 40 plumbing pipe. October, 2011: I wrote these instructions over seven years ago, so up-front I am going to edit a few things. Follow these instructions to make your own simple Irish flute from PVC and materials that you have in your own home…
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